And while he hated to ever lie to her, telling her that he was in an alternate dimension with a couple of preternatural super beings was just a really bad idea. "I was feeling better, so I went out to grab a bite with friends. Didn't you see the note I left?"
Something strange was going on in the background. Were those sirens? He wasn't quite sure.
When his mom spoke again, it was in a low tone that sounded like she had her hand cupped over the mic. "Listen, baby. There's a situation here. Can you stay away for a while?"
What the heck? His mother never said things like that. At least not to him. All he ever heard was Nick get your butt home. Now!
He screwed his face up at the first thought that came to his mind. Especially since she'd gone to dinner with his mentor and best friend, Big Bubba Burdette.
Ah man, what had lunatic Bubba and Mark gotten her into now with their shenanigans? Those two could find trouble in a padded room, with both arms tied behind their backs.
His stomach sank to his feet as an even worse thought hit him.
"Ah, Ma! Please tell me you ain't doing nothing with Bubba. I swear to God, if I come home to a tie on the doorknob I'll be scarred for life. I am not ready to deal with the thought of that man as my new daddy."
"Oh my Lord, Nicholas Ambrosius Gautier! The things that you get in your head, boy! Don't make me hunt you down to spank you. Seriously! This has nothing to do with Bubba. Oh my Lord, boy! Really! Really?!"
"Then what?"
"The police just came here to arrest you!"
Nick froze as every bit of blood faded from his face. Bad flashbacks went through him from the last time he'd been wanted for something he hadn't done. "W-w-what?"
"You heard me! They're looking for a suspect to all the murders that've been going on."
Yeah, but why blame him? Only thing he was guilty of was hogging covers and sneaking french fries when Kody wasn't looking.
And one time only, he'd taken a sip of Xev's beer by mistake 'cause he thought it was Ginger Ale. Even that, he'd confessed promptly the following Saturday to Father Jeffrey and had done every one of his Acts of Contrition. And sworn to the Heavenly Father he'd never do it again until he turned twenty-one. Even then he wouldn't for fear his mom might not let him make it to twenty-two.
"What's that got to do with me, Ma?"
"Two of the victims were your friends, Alan and Tyree!"
Her words slammed into him like a physical blow. No ... it couldn't be.
Nick staggered back into the wall. He wouldn't have been more stunned had she named Acheron, and Nick's Dark-Hunter boss, Kyrian, as victims. In fact, Alan and Tyree jumping him was what had led to him meeting Kyrian in the first place. When Kyrian had saved his life after Alan had shot him on the street.
"Someone overheard you threatening to kill them, Nick. To get back at them for beating you that night. So the police want to question you about it. They think you wanted retaliation. You're their primary suspect."
"I didn't do it, Ma!"
"I know, baby. Kyrian and Acheron are talking to a lawyer about it, right now. But I didn't want the police picking you up and hauling you to jail without warning, like you're some kind of hoodlum. We're going to take you in, with their lawyer, so that you won't be booked and processed. I just need to know when you're coming home so that we can take care of this mess and not let you spend any time in jail!"
He was truly grateful for that. Last thing he wanted was to be locked up like his father. Especially now that he was a Malachai.
That kind of anger and viciousness fed his powers. Made him ruthless and stronger. Ate away his will and left him vulnerable to the bad side of his demonic tendencies. If left too long among those kinds of people, he might lose control and become a full blown demon ...
Yeah, that was a terrifying thought.
And it was the last thing anyone needed.
Nick swallowed hard. "I'm with Simi."
"You're safe?"
"Definitely. There's no way the police can get to me here."
"Okay. Stay there and I'll call and tell you where to meet us so that we can handle this."
Nick hung up the phone and shook his head as he tried to make sense of the insanity. But that wasn't possible.
Alan and Tyree were dead. How? While it was true they'd been known to run with a rough crowd and get into things they shouldn't, it was still a shock to him. They'd once been inseparable brothers who had each other's backs, through thick and thin.
Dang ...
"You okay?"
He blinked at Takeshi's question. "Can you show me my friends on that timeline? Did Alan and Tyree die like this originally?"
"What do you mean?"
"My friends who shot me. Did they die in the first go round, before the timeline was tampered with?" He moved back to the lights and tried to read his roadmap. "I have to know what happened to them before Ambrose came back and started changing things."
Takeshi took him over to the first weird split. "Well, you weren't shot in the first sequence. You were stabbed."
"Why would that change?"
Nashira moved forward. "Because one of the possibilities in the new timeline is that you could go to prison for murder in retaliation for being shot and then mugged by them."
Takeshi nodded. "She's right." He pointed out the lines that intersected. "See how things build on each other. That's cause and effect. As you change something, it goes into a different direction and splinters off. This is now a new possibility that wasn't here before."
Nick was slowly beginning to understand. "Like in the Eye of Ananke."
Takeshi stared at him. "What do you know of that?"
"I had it. Caleb took it from me like an irate parent, slapped my hand, and told me not to touch it again or he'd slap my face next time."
"Good! You don't need to play with that. It'll only mess you up."
And boy had it. His head hadn't been right since. Though to hear most tell it, his head had never been right.
Some days, he agreed.
More green began to flash. "What's going on now?"
Takeshi laughed nervously. "Honestly? I'm not sure you want me to answer."
That didn't help his would-be ulcer any. "Ambrose told me to use the Eye to reset what I'd done. To go back to the beginning and not mess up anything else."
"Yeah, but you're not listening, Nick. It's not what you did. Someone else is tampering with your timeline. This isn't about what you're doing. It's what they're undoing."
"Dude, you're seriously freaking me out."
"You need to be freaked out. This is bad. Everything is unraveling and you're walking a tightrope."
"Not helping!" Nick's only saving grace was that Kody wasn't here to hear the unmasculine whine in his voice. That was the last thing he wanted.
Or worse, for Caleb to hear it.
"You're misreading this."
They both turned to stare at Nashira.
"Pardon?"
She stepped forward. "Look at it, Neo. Carefully." With a delicate grace, she moved her hands over the lines as if playing some kind of instrument. As she did so, the lights shimmered and danced, then cleared.
Takeshi gaped. "She's right."
"I'm lost again."
He shook his head. "No, Nick. You're found. Just close your eyes. Count to three. And open them."
"Yeah, right. I wasn't born yesterday! Last time I did that, I got sucker-punched." His past had given him severe trust issues. He didn't blindly close his eyes for anyone. Not even to make a wish on his birthday cake.
Simi tsked at him. "You can trust them, silly boy-demon! Just doos what he says!"
Not sure about that, Nick growled and forced himself to do it. But it made every hair on the back of his neck stand up in protest.
Trust was not in him. With or without the Malachai blood.
Sheez!
Yet the moment he began to relax, he started to understand what they'd been trying to tell him.
Gasping, he opened his eyes and shook his head.
"You are the Malachai."
For the first time, Nick got it. Completely. He saw the universe as it was and his real and true place in it.
More than that, he had a quickening of the breadth and depth of his true powers. They flowed and united. Not just his, but all of the Malachai who'd come before him.
He was Monakribos. Jeros. Evander and Veres ...
Yarin. Eli. Xul. Elyon. Xarex. Utu ...
Adarian.
Ambrose.
On and on. All united. From first to last, throughout time. He felt that connection.
More than that, he saw how it all began and felt the rage of the first betrayal that had led to their creation. The hunger for blood.
Throughout time, his species had been on a quest for vengeance.
Nothing soothed it.
Not until the day Nick had found his Kody.
"I don't understand," he whispered.
Yet no sooner had those words come out of his mouth than he saw himself long ago ...
CHAPTER 3
"So you're the son of Braith."
Standing in the middle of an opulent marble hallway, Nick blinked at the rich, melodic voice so similar to Kody's, and yet the accent was very different. Even so, this woman shared the same bright green eyes that seared him with intelligent curiosity, and a smile that made every part of his body sizzle.
She was just as breathtakingly bold as she walked straight up to him and arched her brow in challenge. "Have you nothing to say to me?"
Not really. He was too amused by the woman who barely came up to his chin. Her white wings twitched.
Her spunk and sass warmed him on every level. "And you would be?"
"Rubati. I've come to join the goddess's guard, but they told me that there were no openings. Apparently, there are so many Malachai here in the city that we're being sent back home without even being tested for skill. Pity." Sighing, she turned to leave.
Before he could stop himself, he reached for her hand.
"And why's that?"
There was no missing the confident gleam in her eyes. "I'm one of the best fighters ever born."
He laughed.
Faster than he could react, she flipped him onto his back and had a knife at his throat.
Impressed, he stared up at her, knowing that, had she wanted to, she could have killed him. "You made your point."
"I know." She stepped away and sheathed her knife. Then she held her hand out for him so that she could help him to his feet.
Thinking to fool her, he tried to flip her in turn.
Even then she got the better of him and once again, he ended on the flat of his backside, staring up at the amused twinkle in her eyes.
Until he swept his feet out from under her.
With a shriek, she crashed down on top of him. Laughing once more, he rolled and pinned her beneath him. "Draw, is it?"
With an indignant hiss, she reluctantly ceded his victory. "That was an unfair attack!"
"Really? You dare accuse me, given what you just did?"
"A little. Aye."
More amused than he should be, he rolled off her and helped her up. "I'm still impressed. And perhaps we can find a place for you in the guard, after all. Regardless of what they told you. Would you like for me to speak to the commander on your behalf?"
Her hopeful expression did the strangest things to his gut. Honestly, he'd never seen anyone more beautiful, nor had she been boasting about her skills. She was an accomplished fighter. "Could you?"
"Sure. On one condition."
"What?"
"Have dinner with me?"
Nick let out a deep breath as he realized he was seeing how Monakribos and Rubati first met, and how they started their doomed relationship.
Monakribos was the original Malachai who'd founded his lineage before recorded history had begun. It had been Rubati's vicious murder at the hands of her drugged and deranged husband as decreed by treacherous gods that had led to Nick's curse and prophecy.
His forefather had sworn his vengeance against them all for what they'd taken from him. He'd vowed to see the entire world burn over it.
The heart and soul of her husband, Rubati had been the anchor who had kept the first Malachai sane and manageable. She alone had made him "human". Once she was gone, he'd lost all shred of humanity and caring.
It was her DNA that she shared with Kody's mother that allowed Kody to be Nick's anchor in the future. And it was why he was their one hope of thwarting the Malachai curse. Because Kody's mother had been created from Rubati's blood, she, alone, calmed him. All because her mother had been born out of the injustice of Rubati's murder.
The gods had wrongfully taken Rubati's life and so to balance it out, Bethany had been resurrected without a heart to provide justice to the universe.
That was the legacy of Kody's bloodline. Her family were all gods of justice and balance. Chthonians or demigods.
Protectors of man.
Meanwhile Nick's were the destroyers. They were hatred and all the darkness of the universe.
By reuniting their two bloodlines, Nick and Kody stood a chance at laying the hatred aside and allowing Nick to live out his lifetime not as a destroyer, but as a protector too.
Haven't you figured it out yet?
Nick gasped as he heard his father's voice in the aether around him.
"Adarian?"
Something slammed into his chest, knocking him down. It felt as if he'd been hit by a truck. With a gasp, he forced himself to his feet, and braced himself to take another hit as he realized this wasn't who and what he thought.
This was the other Malachai.
"Where are you?" he roared. "Face me, you coward!"
Light blinded him.
And out of the searing brightness came the red and black winged beast who haunted his nightmares. The one with red, glowing eyes that hated him most.
Not his father.
Ambrose Malachai. The monster he feared becoming.
Beautiful and ugly in that he would one day incinerate the world. Or at least allow it to fall.
Nick winced as he faced himself in the vast nothingness that hovered between dimensions. "Why are you here?"
Ambrose tsked at him. "C'mon, kid. You're not this stupid. I mean, you are. But think about it for a minute." He lifted his clawed hands up. The black talons shot fire toward the sky as his black wings spread out. Those eyes telegraphed their hatred and malice.
"What are the inherent powers of our kind?"
Nick scowled at Ambrose's question. "Necromancy." Which had been one of his hardest things to master and he was still working on it. The ability to talk to the dead wasn't something he could do with any kind of ease.
Not to mention, it was rather creepy. And the dead tended to be crabby whenever he tried it. They had nasty attitudes about being disturbed. Kind of like his whenever his mom asked him to take out the trash.
Ambrose nodded in approval. "What else?"
The first one he'd mastered and the only one he'd been born with that Menyara hadn't been able to bind or restrict. "Perspicacity." That ability to see the heart and truth of those around him. Whether it was the fact that Acheron was really a god or to tell whenever someone was lying to him, a Malachai could always see the truth of all things. Who and what everything really was.
Nothing and no one ever got the better of a Malachai.
Ambrose inclined his head. "Go on."
"Teleportation." They could move through connected space in short bursts, but not through time. Handy, but irritating to master in that Nick had screwed it up a lot in the beginning and had embarrassed himself royally as he ended up in a few places he hadn't meant to.
Yeah, not some of his finer memories. Puberty was bad enough. Puberty combined with sporadic bursts of popping in and out of rooms and clothes ...
Nightmare levels that drove even the bravest into therapy.
"Next?" Ambrose prompted.
"Silkspeech." Another of the easier powers to master. The ability to sway the minds of the weak and influence thought. To make them do or think what you wanted. One of Nick's favorite powers, especially with his teachers, and very handy for saving him from detention at school. And getting him out of parking tickets.
Sadly, it didn't work with his stubborn mother, or girlfriend. And if he tried it on Caleb, that resulted in massive bruising both to his body and ego.
"You're halfway there, kid."
Nick went for another aggravating one that misfired more than it worked correctly. "Clairvoyance." Because the future wasn't set, that one could be seriously tricky. The ability to see an ever-changing future was like trying to jump onboard a moving train. You had to time it correctly and make sure you didn't misjudge your steps. Or miss seeing the blurry telephone pole that was about to take your head off if you failed to see it in time. It also required opening his senses to the aether he was in now. To be able to see, hear and experience a heightened realm and to leave his body behind so that he could see the entire universe.
It was frightening here. A part of him was always scared he wouldn't make it back to his body. That he'd get lost and be adrift forever. But once tapped, he could find anything. Hear anyone. See the past. Present or future. It was like time traveling in a way. You just had to be able to make sense of it and understand it.
And not get drowned or overwhelmed by it all--a very tricky thing to do.
"And?"
"Dude! Don't rush me," he bristled at Ambrose. If anyone knew how much he hated to be pushed, it was himself.
Ambrose gave him a peeved, droll stare.
Yeah, well, he deserved it.
Nick cleared his throat before he continued. "Telekinesis." Another one that had been relatively easy to master. At least when it involved his Malachai tools. They usually came whenever he called them. Other objects could be a little harder as they had a tendency to hit him in the head and other body parts he didn't want to think about. Mostly because that tended to make him walk funny for a few.
"You're almost there."
His pocket heated up to remind him of his favorite one. It was where he kept his pendulum at all times as he was prone to lose things. "Divination and conjuring." Again, they could be tricky, but so long as he stayed focused, they weren't so bad. And though most people thought divination was the same as clairvoyance, it wasn't. Divination and conjuring relied on using objects or tools in order to read signs or learn about the higher senses. Those were an entirely different set of skills.
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